Showgan -- Standing On Edge (Invitational)

[Charon]

{ooc| Sounds fun, Melissa! We don't have culture days here... or malls, for that matter. Actually, once our school canteen served german and french breakfasts all week at our canteen. Annoyingly my bus doesn't get in early enough for me to have any... but the people that walk to school or get a public bus had croissants and cold meats.
Yar, I was starting to wonder where you had gone... As long as you didn't die in a horrendous alcohol induced car crash, that's ooooookay.

Well, there's no Charon-based goss yet, it's been raining non stop this weekend and all my friends are hiding in their various villages. On V-Day we're hoping to see Final Destination 2, though!

And...Maxie'll probably pick up the nidoran on her way down the mountain... btw, what do you guys call Nidoran ♀/♂? I always find it humourous, when me and my sister play pokemon together we say 'nidoran boy' - like it's some sort of really cheesy super hero or whatever....
Also, here's a request in progress. It's a friend character, don't die from the pink!

}

As Rai called out to her, Maxie felt herself smile. Yeah, he's a nice lad, she thought to herself, and wandered back over to the group. "Sorry about that." she said meekly, and felt her cheeks burn with shame. "I... I dunno, I guess I'm a bit scared of psycics." Maxie stared at her shoes. She didn't like people to know she was afraid. Fears were only natural, only human - and Maxie hated people to realise that she was as mortal as them.

She paused, as Rai turned his attention to Jena. For a split second, she felt a stab of jealously - but the second she saw Jena, with a downtrodden look on her face, it fled without a trace. "Jena?" Maxie repeated catiously.

Fang leapt from Maxie's shoulder and fluttered catiously towards Zachary. He stared at the rock face suspiciously, as if expecting the psycic trainer to reappear at any moment.
{Bleh.} He stuck his tongue out.

 

[Random Plushie]

OOC:

Yargh, I shoulda posted during a commercial break during the Olympics. XD



IC:


"Nice battle, Rai! That guy.. Wait. Oh dear, I suppose we have to get going again.." Kayley said, sighing to herself as she stood up off of the ground, brushing some dirt off of her pants as she did so. The time she had been alotted to sit down had been worth it, though. Any amount of time to catch her breath would've been worth it. She reached down for her trumpet case, Fishy taking this moment to leap off of her shoulder.

The Mudkip wandered around in a circle for a moment, not saying anything until Chupon had announced that they should all celebrate with smoothies. Fishy's eyes instantly lit up.

{Strawberry smoothies!} Fishy piped up, tongue lolling out of his mouth in newfound hunger. {If we don't find a stand we'll have to make some ourselves! I'm like starving that's why.} The Mudkip pawed at the ground, smiling.

However, due to everyone's words of concern, Kayley had also turned to Jena in confusion. However, she didn't say anything to the Coordinator. She felt that everyone had already asked her what was wrong enough times at the moment.

 

[Ibuberu]

OOc-

*stares at the prettyful colors of Charon's pink picceh*

Like, Charon. That seriously ish Feebas!^^
I don't really mind the pinkness, cause it was used at the right places. I love the sitting position you placed it in. And the background's cute.X3

Ic-

"Eh?!"Jena looked up... to see that everyone had taken to staring at her. They were asking her if she was, okay? Was it really that obvious, noticable? The girl instinctivly pulled her hair while talking, forcing a smile.

"No! No! Eh, what gave you all that idea? I mean, yeah, I'm missing the Mareep. But really, nothing's wrong."she laughed nervously, nearly losing her footing from the tenseness building up inside her. Feebas, was she lucky she'd learn how to stand properly before. This was one of the few rare times when the girl was actually thankful for the training she received.

"Eh, you guys don't need to worry about me. I'm fine. Really."the Coordinator let go of her hair to place one hand on the wall for extra support, shaking her other hand to add to the emphasis on her statement.

{We? Make a smoothie stand? Yes! Yes, that'd be very nice, no?}Cascade jumped up and down in excitement of all the talk on smoothies and whatnot.

{Oooh! Does that mean that me, Orjen, the Wurmple, can finally taste, drink, sample a smoothie? Yay!}the Wurmple on Jena's head raised his stubby arms in the air for a moment or so.

"The last thing you all need to do is worry about me. I'm fine. I can take care of myself and I'll voice out any problems I have."the girl said firmly, course the last part of her sentence was unlike her. But was there really another choice?

 

[Light_Azumarill]

OOC: Guh... I think my stomach has worms in it. XD Oh speeches, they never cease to make my adrenaline rush. -.-

EDIT: AHH! I forgot to comment on Charon's piccie! X.X Well, I really liked it! I love the style you have Charon, it's very cute and interesting. I don't mind the pink, though the colors make it look very unnatural. The linework is nice and crisp, and it's an interesting pose. I really like the shading though. That's probably my favorite part. ^-^


Zachary
============

As everyone began showing concern for Jena, Zachary felt a bit confused. Jena looked sad? Zachary wasn't the most observant person when it came to another person's feelings. Heck, he still didn't know why Silver had looked so upset when he had come back with Amelia and Maxie. It was something he had to work on if he ever wanted to become good at training, relationships, and other things in life. Girls were just so different though, and they easily confused the poor boy.

Jena said it was nothing more than missing the Mareep, and Zachary shrugged and continued climbing. He had no reason to believe she wasn't being truthful. Ron, on the other hand, looked unconvinced by Jena's statement. He had positioned himself on a small ledge that was near Zachary's head.

{I think she's lying,} he whispered to the boy, nodding.

Zachary was at that moment attempting to find a decent rock to stand on, and hurriedly looked up at his pokemon. "Aw come on Ron, now is not the time to figure everything out. If she does have a secret, then it's her secret and you should just leave it alone," he said in a whisper, then going back to looking for some good footing.

{And what about Maxie? What's she hiding?} the Aron continued, obviously not sensing his partner's preoccupation.

"Ron would you just drop it? I'm kinda busy! And I don't really care about what their hidden secrets are... right now I care about finding a decent foothole so could you just go away?!" Zachary snapped, still whispering but it was a good deal angrier than before and thus a little louder.

Ron frowned at him, {Fine.} He resumed his climbing, choosing to ignore the boy.

Zachary looked up at Ron with not an angry glare but a confused frown. Why did he just snap at Ron? The little steel type was being annoying, but why was he so angry about it? It was the same way he had felt when he had stormed out of the Pokemon Center after Haze had scared him... an anger that was quick to come and seemingly for no reason, and then just as mysteriously vanishes. Perhaps it was just him overreacting.

'Or,' said a little voice in his head, 'It's exactly how your father acted, isn't it?' He suddenly felt very scared of himself. But it didn't make any sense! There were numerous other things that he should have gotten angry about and didn't so why... why would it be like his father? His father sometimes didn't get mad about things he should have though... didn't he? Zachary was busy thinking hard and trying to remember times his father got angry, but nothing would come to him now.

He looked up at the others, and figured that he had better pull it together or they would think something was wrong. How strange, just as Ron suggests that the others have secrets they keep, Zachary was forming his very own. He grabbed a bit of the mountain before him and silently kept on climbing.

 

[Alter Ego]

OOC: Bleah, my head is pounding, my eyes feel tired, and I think it's a fever building up too. Yep, Alter's getting sick again...joy...~_~

Meh, with a little luck I'll at least get to take advantage of it and skip the suckiness that is known as Winter Sports day. I friggen' hate Winter Sports day. It's all for people who either like riding or skiing. I, not liking (Or even knowing) either, would end up with the thrilling outdoor activity of walking. -.-

And that piccie is good otherwise but...gah, pink and orange/yellow in combo always rub me the wrong way. Those are my two most hated colours right there. >.< Meh, can't be helped I suppose. *Tries his best not to die from the pinkness*

IC:

"Well...allright..." Rai replied, although he failed to completely coneal the unconviction in his voice and expression, "But really, please do tell us if there's something wrong, allright? I for one am ready to help my friends if need be." he gave the girl one last, imploring look before turning his attention back to the path in front of him, noting that Zachary had already taken up continuing.

The boy seemed a bit more quiet than his usual self, but he seemed to be okay otherwise so Rai figured that it was probably just the fatigue of the climb. Still though, he couldn't help feeling that this explanation was just a tad odd, seeing as how Zachary seemed to have been doing quite well thus far.

I still can't help wondering, though... he came to think as he took up climbing as well, having first firmly placed Kaika on one of his shoulders while Chupon sat on his other, Are we really friends? We all seem to be hiding something from each other; Silver and her helmet...Maxie and her past...Jena and her talk about Mareep rearing...Zachary acting kind of odd...and...me. Shouldn't...aren't friends supposed to share with each other? To trust each other? a slight frown spread across his face, although he did his best to mask it as a vigorous attempt at climbing up the slope, Am-am I trusting them? Or rather...trusting them enough? Is any one of us?

The boy shook his head sternly, forcing these thoughts out of his mind for the moment. The mountain path itself was treacherous enough without him adding an additional hazard to it by brooding about these things. Everything would probably become clear with time, for now, the important thing was beating the Azure Town gym leader and finally getting a start on his trainer's career.

 

[Light_Azumarill]

OOC: Okay... my throat's gone from feeling 'funny' to feeling full-blown scratchy and a little sore within a half an hour!! -_______- Great... and I have class until 7 tonight. Phwee.... Aw well, at least I gave my speech before I started feeling bad.

o.o Looks like Alter and I have some lovely colds ahead of us.


Zachary
=============

He couldn't end up like his father. He had to figure out what this was that was bothering him. Hormones perhaps? Teenagers often dealt with a roller coaster of emotions... isn't that what those videos in class had said? Perhaps he was just stressed out from the battle with Raven, practically confessing to Amelia, and now climbing a mountain? That made sense. Maybe he was being to hard on himself, after all, going on a journey like this in itself is so stressful, he should probably talk with his mother, that always made him feel better. He found himself caught up with Rai.

"Rai... can I ask you something?" he said carefully, sounding a bit nervous. He could explain things to Rai... and the smart and calm boy would reassure him that things were indeed just from stress. He need not explain everything; just his main concerns.

"I- I sorta snapped at Ron a moment ago. Do- do you think that it could be from stress or something? I mean, I don't normally snap at people, it seemed a little out of character for me so I...," he trailed off, not really sure how to finish. He probably looked crazy, but he had to say something about it. Zachary wasn't the kind of person that could keep something like this to himself, whether or not he told anyone his fears about his father.

 

[Ibuberu]

OOc-

Eh, Melissi and Titan, hope both of you get better!^^;;

Anyways-

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!^0^

Like, yey for Valentines Day. Though yeah, I didn't get any...But it was fun repeating it over and over again in class. And singing a song to my English Teacher before she started giving us a Maths Test...[Niah, she agreed to swap periods with my Maths teacher.o.O]
Oh yeah, and a bucket of water fell on me today and got half me uniform wet.X3
Feebas, I think my seniors and friends thought I was crazier than usual by screaming and jumping and laughing at the same time..XD
Our character development teacher, he made us get into groups of 14, somewhere around there. And use only our legs to balance a bucket of water. AND take out our shoes and socks, lower the bucket on the floor before lifting it up once more. AND putting back our shoes. With no allowed use of hands. Feebas, it was fun.X3 The additional add of water into the bucket9which started half full) every few minutes was fun too.

The boys on our team, they released their legs when the pail started tipping to one side (Guess who the pail was tipping to, eh?Guess. XD)

Ic-

Jena nodded at Zachary and Rai's statement, glad that they didn't choose to persue the matter any longer. At least they wouldn't be finding out about her real origin anytime soon. Hopefully, never. Yeah, the girl just couldn't risk it. It was always the same, once anyone knew she was..well. A Minane, they'd swarm on her for information about her parents, then proceed to disappear later on. Of course, this didn't mean everyone. Infact, Zhena was practicly humoring herself by saying they were known region-to-region wide. Still it semed nice to have friends.

"Orjen ,sure you're alright up there..?"the Coordinator asked her Wurmple, grabbing onto an obvious foothole, following Zachary and Rai as they continued their climb to the gym.

{Yes! Definately! Truely! Without a doubt!}the Bug Type gave his trainer an assuring pat on the head, choosing to open his hands out wide so that he could feel a small bit of wind brush against him. It was refreshing, it was. Tania on the other hand, shivered as she hovered in the air, taking careful note to fly extremely close to Jena.

 

[Charon]

{ooc| sounds like fun, Yibber! Itwas you, right?
To celebrate valentines day today me and my girl friends are having an anti-V-day - we're gonna walk around with 'broken hearts' stuck to our back. xDDD It should be fun. Then in the afternoon we're meeting up with the guys and we're gonna see a movie/have food. Yaaaaaay!
Not that I can eat currently...
Also, orange, pink and yellow are my favourite colours! *girly squeal* though, most of my clothes are currently red, to match my sexy german jeans (which have red detail) or are purply-brown, according to current fashion. I must be trendy! Though... I have a lot of 'classics' in my wardrobe, as well as throw-away fashion. A portion of my wardrobe changes each season, but my goregous jeans, casual shirts, v-neck jumpers, heels etc all stays the same. Yes, I am bored. That is why I'm talking about clothes. Because I'm a girl and I love clothes. *flounces off*
*flounces back to write an IC*}

Maxie shrugged her shoulders. "Onwards and upwards, I guess... Fang, get here!" she hissed, and the little bat's ears pricked. He was still inspecting the psycic's platteu, fluttering to-and-fro above it. He paused mid wing-beat, and darted back to his trainer, taking his usual place on her shoulder.
{He has most definetly left!} the bat squeaked.
"Thanks for that, Holmes."

Maxie began to wander up the hill, albeit catiously. After all, if there were any more psycics... Maxie shuddered at the thought. Psycics could read her mind, full of those nasty, murderous thoughts Maxie often tried to stamp out but always rose to the surface anyway... But a clever one might notice the peculiar similarity between her and Fang's brainwaves... and she didn't want any unwanted questions being thrown around. Not in front of my friends, anyway.... Maxie paused, her own thoughts suprising her. When did she start caring so much about these kids? Of course, they'd stop trusting me and then my ticket to regainging Sephy would be lost forever, she told herself firmly. That was why she cared so much. Yeah. That was the only reason why.

She paused, glancing to Rai and Zachary. The brown-haired boy looked concerned about something, and he was beginning to talk to Rai. Maxie pinched her zubat's wingtip. "Listen in for me." she whispered.
Fang turned his radar-like ears to the two boys, listening intently. It wasn't hard to overhear what they were saying - ater all, a zubat can hear a drop of blood hit the ground one hundred metres away. The bass voices of two teenage boys wasn't hard for him to pick up.
He turned to Maxie, and repeated what Zachary had said. The girl's face was, for a moment, a picture of confusion.
"I snap at you all the time..." she murmured.
{That's cos you're a prick!} Fang screeched cheerfully.
Maxie ignord this comment. She was stroking an imaginary beard, apparently thinking. Fang nearly fell off her shoulder from shock - Maxie very rarely thought about anything! Except murder, and treason, and blackmail, and food, of course.....
Maxie couldn't help wondering; maybe Zachary would take after his Dad after all?

{ooc| ... I'm bored and my teeth hurt, so I can't even eat! My mum is making eggs and soldiers for my sister, I reeeeeally want some. Ahh yes, good old fashioned english food. It cannot be beaten.
Though, curry comes veeeeery close.
I finished The Minish Cap last night! Completely! The last boss was an arse, I onyl had half of my hearts left by the time I got to him so it was quite a close call... Ahhh, I love Zelda games...}

 

[Random Plushie]

OOC:

Yibber, our lives are the equivalents of sitcoms, I swear.. XD

'Ey Charon, you could always eat smoothies while your braces hurt. Or maybe eat soup or somethin'. Of course I'm just stating the obvious, so you can ignore me. X3



IC:



Kayley pouted as she felt the trumpet case start to weigh her down again. Everyone else seemed to be having no problem scaling the mountain, and she could barely keep one foot in front of the other! Ah well, all she had to do was mask her exhaustion.. There was no need for them to slow their pace or anything just because she was a little worn out.

Fishy leaped up the hill ahead of his Trainer, straying away from the group every once in a while in order to peer cautiously over the faces of several smaller cliffs, making a face whenever the view was too dizzying. Sometimes he would bound back to where Kayley was trudging, muttering things about smoothies under his breath.

{Hey! Hey everybody! Who wants to sing a song~!} Kinaki called, much farther down the mountain than Kayley, a huge grin plastered on her face. Her jaw snapped once in anticipation.

 

[Alter Ego]

OOC: You have a cold too, Melissa? Well, at least we're not alone in suffering, eh? xD It sounds like you got the worse one though, mine is still in that fuzzy, half-sick, half-okay state you have just before the cold really breaks out and it annoys me. I'm healthy enough to go to school but too sick to go to Jujitsu practice. And that stinks. <.<

And uh, yay for your character building excercise, Yibber! xD We had an unusually fun ToK lesson today. We all went down to join the Biology group and then we had to discuss the ethical issues of genetics and whatnot with the biology lot. We were all assigned specific roles that we had to play. Yay for school RPing! ^0^

Oh, and the discussion was pretty...polictically incorrect at times. In our group we had one representative each for; Insurance companies, Immigration officials, an unborn Children's rights organization, and hospital adminstration (That was me xD), then we had two representatives from the taxpayers union because there was an excess of those. Anyways, the issue that we were supposed to 'discuss' was what should be done about the case of a 35-year old male who is a resident and wants to have her wife, who is pregnant with the family's third child (who has been confirmed to possess a disease which eats away at the muscles and lowers the patient's life expectancy to 20 years at best) moved in with him. Well, uh...it went kind of like this;

Insurance; "I'm opposed to this. Even if you decide to bring her in then we're most certainly not insuring some little freak who'll die before it's twenty. The woman can come if she aborts the baby."

Childrens' rights: "It's not a freak! It's a baby! Are you suggesting that we should murder an innocent child?"

Hospital: "No, she's saying that we should abort a defective fetus, a procedure which has developed immensely-"

Taxpayers: "Not if we, the taxpayers, have to pay. If they want an abortion then they'll have to pay a private doctor."

Childrens' rights: "No-one's murdering the baby! That child has the right to live like any other. And besides, the loss of her child would make the mother depressed, and the social cost caused by that outweights the benefit."

Insurance: "But a disease like that needs lots of constant treatment."

Taxpayers: "Yeah, it would be cheaper to just abort it and give the mother a happy pill once in a while."

Hospital: "I concur, we can offer premium wares at a most reasonable price."

Insurance: "How about we just reject them? Then it will be someone else's problem."

Immigration: "Yeah, let's send them off to Sweden and let them take care of it."

Someone: "Or Norway! It's such a stinking rich country anyway."

It ended up with the group deciding to accept moving the baby into the country with the condition that the mother would be relocated to Norway. o.O In retrospect I have absolutely no idea how we came to that conclusion but it all seemed perfectly logical at the time. xD

Anyhow, I don't mind orange or yellow on their own, or even orange and yellow in combo. Pink is okay in limited amounts too. But when orange or yellow team up with pink...bleah. That's a different story alotgether altogether. <_< I also hate that specific shade of white (Or grey, I'm not sure which it counts as. xP) that all the hospital walls in this country are painted with, because my mind has grown to associate that colour with all the joys of a broken wrist and swollen fingers so thoroughly that my right wrist actually starts aching a bit whenver I see that colour. ~_~

And yes, you do seem to like clothes. Ahh...sometimes I wish I did that a bit more too, if only so that I could make proper decisions for what my characters should wear. ^-^

IC:

Rai looked up as Zachary adressed him, staying silent to allow the boy to finish his question as he was obviously having some difficulties with phrasing it.

"You snapped at Ron, eh?" he replied, keeping his voice fairly quiet as well, "Well, that explains why you were looking a bit down just now." he took a small pause, gathering up his thoughts, "Well...it could be stress, yes." the boy concured, "I mean, I snapped a bit at Ashura a while back too, and that was definitely the stress, so yes. Unless there would be some other potential reason for this personality change that I'm not aware of?" his voice sounded quite inquisitive at the end of the sentence, but he quickly took it back, "No, I shouldn't pry into that, should I?" he asked, more rhetorically than anything else, "It was probably just the stress, anyway. Don't brood too much over it, that's only bound to make it worse."

He turned his attention to the slope in front of him instead, determined as ever to make it to the top.

 

[Random Plushie]

OOC:

Alter, that school role-play reminds me of an iMovie script I wrote yesterday. :3

The script is indeed for a science project. 'Cause we have to make a short movie about ancient Hawaiian fishponds. It's actually kinda interesting.. the kind of fishponds they came up with during the 13th century. o.o It's fun to do projects on stuff that interests you.

Maybe I'll post the script later.

I will post an IC tomorrow! Yes I will! It ish because I don't want to make a two-line post! ^-^


Editness:


Aha! I found a copy of the script! You guys can all read it~! ^-^

I must warn you.. It is MEANT to be very lame. XD

 

[Charon]

{ooc| lol, Alter! Here... well, if the woman wanted an abortion she'd get one free on the NHS. The national health service. But if she wanted to keep the baby she'd get it's treatment free on the NHS aswell. Uh.... so both ways would cost the taxpayers money... xD We suck. Luckily we're a rich country so I don't think anyone cares that much. I mean, we waste so much money building random towers and whatnot, we must have a lot to spare.
Speaking of towers, I think my family and I are going to the Spinica...or however it's spelt... Tower in Portsmouth tomorrow. Yay for trips!

That was cool Plush! I thoroughly enjoyed that script, and I am now well-informed about hawaiien ponds. xDD
At my youth centre we made a play for a competition... the play was called 'Directing Olivia' and it was a parody on the play 'Oliver' - a play about making a more poltically correct version. I was the Lunch Lady, and the Lead Ninja. Yeeeeeeeeeeah, we tweaked the plot a bit. It was funny. I'll get the script off my friend alter, so you guys can read it and weep - I mean, laugh.
I'm sorry, Alter, my next picture will be less offensive to you....¬¬;
I....don't have anything IC to write now.}

 

[Light_Azumarill]

OOC: Ack! I'm so hungry now. ;_; Right after I post this I'm gonna go eat. Besides, I have class in a little bit. More Botany... yay. We had a test in it the day before yesterday and I think I did well despite the fact that I had to drag myself out of bed and dope myself up with cold medicine to take it. >.> I was so dizzzzy. -____-

And yay for Plushie's script! Though, I haven't read it yet... these school computers are kinda funny about downloading things because of their firewall.

I've never really been one to keep up with fashion unless I like the way it looks. Everyone around here wears the big labels, but I hate how they stick their names all over their clothes. It's... ugly. I just buy the things that look nice, are nice colors, and stylish without free advertising printed on it. ^-^

Oh Alter... that debate took an interesting turn at the end. Eh... America's kinda freaking out about the abortion thing right now. I myself am kinda undecided. However, I think that the decision to abort should be left up to the couple/girl. Would I ever have one? Probably not; but I can't say what I would do if my life were in danger or if my baby had a horrible genetic defect. That'd be a mighty hard decision. It's one of those decisions that you don't make until you come to it.

On that happy note! I post! XD


Zachary
=============

Zachary listened to Rai's words, trying to make out for himself what to think. The boy had alluded to Zachary thinking about another reason for his sudden anger; but the more Zachary considered that dark prospect, the more he found himself confused and worried.

"Yeah... I'll bet it's stress," he said, not sounding fully convinced. He would talk to his mother. His mother knew his father better than anyone, and she would be able to tell if he was acting as his father would have. Zachary shook it off and figured there was no point in talking about it or worrying about it anymore until after he discussed things with his mother.

He went back to concentrating on the climbing, wondering now how his friends' battles were going to go. He looked up for a moment to see how much more they had to climb, and almost lost his footing for a moment. "GAH!" he shouted in surprise before clutching back onto the rocks, grateful that he hadn't let go.

Ron had overheard the two boys talking, and suddenly felt sorry for Zachary. The boy had been around a lot of abusive people when he was younger, and that tended to mess people up. But Zachary had always seemed like one of the rare exceptions... why would he suddenly change like that? Sure he had joined a gang and all, but he had never actually enjoyed it, and he had made the decision on his own to get out. Not to mention that the boy was careful never to hurt anything or anyone. Wasn't that worth something?

 

[Alter Ego]

OOC: Meh, I'm being slow again...*Shot* -.-

First of all, I love that movie script, Plushie. It's simple and efficient, plus, it manages to be informative without being boring. That's quite a feat in my opinion. ^-^

And yeah, that debate really did end up a bit...eccentric. xD Basically, Childrens' Rights harped on about murdering babies, Insurance quite bluntly said that she didn't care, the Taxpayers' only concern was that they wouldn't have to pay for it, Immigration was mostly laughing his arse off at everyone else, and I was just shamelessly marketing drugs and treatment while constantly claiming that it wasn't my place to judge. It's a wonder that debate ever got anywhere. xD

But yes, I believe that the decision of abortion should be one for the parents to make, the mother first and foremost. Even an ill child can live a relatively happy life if the parents are loving and understanding, while at the same time, a perfectly healthy child can end up in a living hell because their parents just don't care, and I fail to see why churches should have anything to say in that. It's not like they're the ones who'll end up taking care of the kid. <.<

Well, I hope none of you had any grand plans in mind for the mountain, because I'm thinking they'll reach the peak right about now.

IC:

Rai merely nodded in response to Zachary' statement, after all, he didn't really know what more to say on the subject, and so he concentrated on the climb instead. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any more Melwind's around, and a few steep slopes and sharp turns later, Rai suddenly found that the path in front of him was not heading upwards any longer, but in fact, sloping down again. Looking up properly for the first time in quite a while, the boy caught sight of something quite impressive indeed. Before him and the others lay a giant lake of boling-hot water, thick clouds of steam constantly rising up from its surface, the haze partially concealing the evening sun from view and a wave of heat accompanied by a strong smell of sulfur striking the boy's senses as he attempted to make out the Azure Town gym amongst the steam. And sure enough, located at the very center of the lake, a large, factory-like structure towered up from the wall of steam surrounding it, the dark-red brick and black metal that was visible, combined with the structure's rather impressive size giving it an ominous feeling. Leading out to this veritable fortress was a solitary yet sturdy-looking stone bridge, which, although safe-looking enough, experienced the occasional assault of a weak gush of water, the remnants of a particularly violent burst from the springs below, splattering down on the stone at the edges of the bridge and colouring them in darker shades for a while before the droplets blended in with their surroundings like they'd always been there.

{Rai...} Chupon whimpered, clinging a bit harder to his trainer {I've got a bad feeling about this...}

{This bes it...} Kaika said, watching the structure looming ahead of them with a mixture of fear and determination, {Let's-let's go teachings the mean old master a thing or three, yes?}

"Well, here we are." Rai stated, although this was probably quite obvious for everyone, "Everyone ready?"

 

[Ibuberu]

OOc-

Franticshippy moments are so Feebas!>3 ---

First time Ruby saw Sapphire wearing the clothes he made for her

Sapphire teasing Ruby about her having one badge while he had no ribbons
^Yup, Mr Briney's there[With Peeko!!^0^]. He fished Ruby out of the sea.^^

Continuation of the above scan.^
Feebas..they're so cute!!!^0^
The cave they're in bes be Granite Cave. And it looks like Ruby and Sapphire were too caught up with arguing that they couldn't tell which was left and right.XDD [Bleh..typo error]

Claiming that she was actually WORRIED for Ruby when Granite Cave started crumbling[she just finished her battle with Brawly and Ruby met up with Steven, who saved him]

Threatening Ruby to tell her where Steven went and pulling Ruby along so that he could give her directions

Ah...even on a Wailord, they can fight.^^
D'aw..Sapphire lifted Ruby up.^^
The girl's strong AND forceful.X3
^Yes, yet another half-chapter scan.

Ruby telling the chairpressie of the Pokemon Fan Club of his horribible encounters with evil Battle Maniacs.XDD *pokes Sapphire's picceh*

Sapphore being mistakened for rampaging Dophan and getting captured by Wattson and..Robot-dude[Me thinks he's the trick house dude.].

Wattson giving out badges?

*Sapphire's angry*She's real pissed of with the continuous fighting.XD
[They found New Mauville for those who're wondering what the hole there was for.^^;;]

Okies, so there was more of Franticshippy piccehs than cute Sapphire piccehs.*shrugs*
Bleh, I feel like scanning somemore stuff now.XD

(Oh Feebas..the two-page scans were smaller this time, its harder to read the words.>_<)


Ic-

Jena kept quiet, not really listening in to the conversation between Rai and Zachary, concentrating more on the climb. Though, it was strange, why did Zach get so worked up when he just snapped at Ron. Of course, one shouldn't really snap at their Pokemon. But still... she brushed the thoughts away, climbing to the peak right after Rai.

"Eh..wow."the Coordinator stared at the amount of steam coming from the huge pool of hot water. She had bever seen anything like this in her life. The girl had also noticed the factory-like building in the middle of the lake. Was that the gym? The leader dude sure piceked an odd spot to open a gym, that was for sure.

"Yeah, I'm ready."she nodded, a small smile on her face, this was just all so interesting.

{Oooh!! Water, yes?}Cascade gazed at the pool of water, eyes sparkling. When was the last time he had a decent bath, or dip in water for the matter?

{Cassie, you'll get scalded, no. You'll get fried if you go near the hot water.}Ryne found it safe to get off her place on Jena, landing on the ground beside the Mudkip, grabbing onto his fin before he could go any further.

{Whoo! Water vapor! Steam! Clouds!}Orjen clapped his hands, deciding it was still better to stay on his trainer.

OOc-

Feebas! I forgot to comment on Plushie's script.>_<;;
Anyways, I found it really funny and informative at the same time. Nice work, Plushie.^^

 

[Random Plushie]

OOC:

Okay, I lied. I waited 'till today to post. XD

Glad y'all liked the script. This is going to be the funniest project ever. The person who plays the dead guy has a tendency to be pessimistic and whiny, so everyone in the group has figured that he'll find something to complain about, like the fact that we're going to poke him with a stick. XD

We're also working on the 'Oh, snap' look for the guy playing Hawaiian Guy #1. Gotta get it just right, you know. XD

But yeah.

I wanna be a screenwriter someday. The kind that write original scripts.[/random]



IC:



After no one had confirmed that they wanted to sing a song as well, Kinaki had fallen into silently pouting the rest of the way. If she had been wearing some kind of clothing with pockets sewn in, one could assume that she would've shoved her paws in them as she pouted.

Fishy was grateful for that, seeing as how the Mawile was too focused in that to pay attention to him. He decided in returning to Kayley before that moment came to an end, though, being sure to stay near his Trainer at all times should the need to escape Kinaki arise.

Kayley wasn't even taking any of that in. She wasn't even bothering listening to what anyone was saying. Or were they just not saying anything after all? She didn't care.. Her whole mind was focusing on one thing and one thing alone: Get to the top of the mountain; don't collapse while doing so.

It was no wonder why she acted while she did when she finally reached the mountain's summit. Despite the ominous building that lay ahead, a huge grin appeared on Kayley's face, the Trainer calling on every ounce of her will not to drop to her knees at the sight of a downhill path.

"Finally! Now we can.. just.. get it over with, I suppose. No point in.. worrying.. If we can get past the mountain.. we.. can get past anything." Kayley wheezed out, clutching her trumpet case tightly, afraid that she'd drop it because she was lacking in energy.

Fishy bounced up and down at his Trainer's side, grinning in agreement.

 

[Charon]

{ooc| Oh, Alter, Fang wanted to sing you all a song! Ah well.
Anyway...
THANK YOU FOR THE SCANS YIBBER!
I really enjoy them and I appreciate how much work you put into it...etc...}

Fang beat his wings suddenly. {I wanna sing!} he screeched, and fluttered off Maxie shoulder to somersault in mid-air.
"That would be brilliant, Nelly - except you forget, no one can understand you..." the girl replied lazily. She was walking now with her hands behind her head, looking completely undaunted by the boiling water and the strong sulphur smell. Still, sweat was beading on her forehead, and she wiped it off with a gloved hand.

"Who on earth would live here?" she snapped irratably. "I...hate the heat..." she grumbled to herself. Dressed as she was, in huge dungerees and thick leather gloves, Maxie was already scorching. She leant on the edge of the bridge, frowning darkly.
"Isn't this....cheating?" she muttered. "alf the kids that arrive will be scalded half to death before they even get inside..."

{...short...;;}

 

[Alter Ego]

OOC: That's allright, Yibber. There were still some pricless piccies right there. Particularly the one where she tosses Ruby onto the abandoned ship. xD And d'aww...they're so cute when they argue, how could anyone doubt Franticshipping with evidence like that? ^-^

And good luck with your screenwriter's career Plushie. You do seem to have a knack for making things fun but consistent at the same time. ^^

Oh, and my apologies to Fang, he shall have to make his musical interlude later I suppose. xD

IC:

Rai couldn't help breaking a smile at Kayley's comment.

"That's the spirit." he said, chuckling slightly, "And don't worry, Chupon." the boy added to his Treecko "I promised you that you wouldn't have to fight against the gym leader and I'm sticking to that. Let's get a move on, the sooner we get away from this heat the better."

With that, Rai began walking down the bridge, taking care not to go too close to the edge just in case he'd end up with a spray of boiling water over his face. That wouldn't be a pretty picture. His current environment certainly made the boy think less positively about his choice of wearing such dark clothes, as he could already feel the sweat building up on his skin, but still, it seemed like he was getting a better end of the bargain than Maxie, as the mystic water he wore around his neck had taken up glowing a bit and seemed to be reducing the sting of the heat, making it a bit less unbearable.

{So...hot...} Chupon panted, wiping a cascade of sweat from his forehead with one foreleg before proceeding to nudge Rai.

The boy quickly took the hint, nodding at his pokémon.

"I see." he replied, picking up the empty pokéball from his belt and pointing it at the Treecko, "Chupon, return."

Accompanied by the usual flash of red light, the grass type vanished from view, dissapearing back into the safety of his pokéball and away from the heat. Kaika on the other hand didn't seem the least bit bothered by the temperature, quite the contrary in fact, the fire type was enjoying every minute of it, and had the situation in front of him not been so intimidating the Vulpix would probably have had a huge grin on his face. As it was though, he simply walked in step with Rai, taking care to stay very close to the boy and mainting a determined expression.

"I'm afraid not." Rai replied at Maxie's question, the rules of gym leading that had been drilled into his mind automatically springing out, "It's called a homefield advantage, I believe. A gym leader has the right to choose any battlefield he or she wishes and rig it in any manner. The only rule is that both the leader and the challenger have to fight under the same conditions." the boy shrugged, "So of course, gym leaders always choose an environment that grants the most benefit to their own pokémon and the places the greatest penalties on their opponents."

The boy fell silent again, suddenly realizing that it was perhaps a tad suspicious for him to be so well-versed in a subject like this, and to avoid giving anything more away he fell silent again, focusing his attention on the gym in front of them instead. By now, the group had reached the main entrance, consisting of a pair of large, black metal doors which, luckily enough, had a handles of wood rather than metal, allowing the boy to, with some minor effort, push them open without having to fear that he'd burn himself.

The interior of the gym seemed a bit darker than one might have expected from a fire gym, consisting of a rusty-brown metal walkway which covered a dark chasm opening up below and emanating a great deal of heat, probably brought in from the hot springs. The smell of sulfur was as thick as ever, and the heat seemed, if possible, even more intense on the inside of the building, stored into the very materials that the structure consisted off as it was. Much like in the cleaning plant, a number of pipelines of various sizes, all of them in shades of black, grey, dark red, and dark brown, snaked across the interior, mostly supported by the walls, although they occasionally jutted out of the floor in large clusters heading upwards as well. As a safety precaution of sorts, the gym leader had at least seen fit to provide a proper railing around the edges of the platform to prevent careless visitors from slipping down, but the place still looked far from welcoming, slightly dim as the lighting was.

"Hello?" Rai called out, noting that the structure seemed to be mostly empty, the only sounds about seeming to consist of the occasional treathening hiss from the pipelines, "We've come to challenge the gym leader!"

"Well don't just stand there hollering like a fishwife then!" replied a cheeky and fairly young, male voice from somewhere behind two clusters of pipelines, "Leader's right over here!"

Rai frowned slightly at this remark, taking up a brisk stride in the direction of the voice, Kaika pressing himself so close to the boy that he almost caused him to trip over.

 

[Light_Azumarill]

OOC: Great scans yet again Yibber! Ruby and Sapphire are quickly becoming two of my favorite people and one of my favorite couples! You've influenced me! XD Charon's right, your scanning work is greatly appreciated.

I finally got a chance to read Plushie's script! Hooray! And I thought it was very good! It was really creative, much moreso than many of the skits I've seen in my years of school. Oh yes.


Zachary
============

As they reached the top of the mountain, it became clear to Zachary that if he ever wanted to open up a gym, he would most certainly not make it in the spirit of this one. It was hot, up a mountain, and now they had to cross a boiling lake! "This guy sure has a funny way to greet people. I don't care if it's homefield advantage or whatever, what if I was some bug catched and my Caterpie fell into that stuff?!" he said, peering down at the boiling water.

After they had crossed the bridge, slowly and carefully in Zachary's case as he kept picturing what it was like to fall into boiling water, Ron approached Zachary with a worried look. {Hey Zack...?} the little Aron said timidly. Zachary looked down at him with a face that clearly had wanted to say he was sorry.

"Before you say anything, I wanted to apologize. I don't know... what got into me," the boy said, patting the Aron on the head. Rai had opened up the doors to the gym right then, the huge dark doors had looked quite onimous.

{Aw Zack I don't think you'll turn into your Dad. If you had the sense and courage to get out of that gang, then you have the sense and courage to steer away from becoming that,} the little pokemon said, wanting to put his friend's mind at ease, {And Zack... it's really warm up here, and the sun's been shining on my armor the whole time so....}

"GAH!" Zachary yelped, a sharp pain going through his hand, "Hot! Hot! Hot!"

{Oops...,} the little Aron said, smiling nervously, {I guess I should've warned you.}

Zachary was blowing onto his hand, "No problem Ron... I think I'm okay." His hand had that tingling pain that could only mean he had effectively burned himself. Hopefully the gym leader carried something to help burns considering he lived next to a boiling lake. If only Amelia had been there, she could've rushed over and come up with something to make him feel better. Oh well, this gym leader would have to do.

 

[Charon]

Maxie grabbed Fang by his tails, and shoved him in her front pocket. For a moment or two, the bat wriggled furiously. {Maxie! Lemme out! Lemme-} he poked his head over the rim of her pocket, only to spot the boiling lake directly in below them. That was the bad thing about sonar vision; you didn't see things all at once. The bat froze, and ducked back down into the pocket. {On second thoughts...} he muttered, and settled down inside the denim with his wings wrapped tight around himself.

Maxie boarded the bridge. She sauntered across chasm with her head held high; she was determined not to show this gymleader an inch of fear. Maxie didn't trust herself to look down - she stared at the building instead, her face a mask.
At the other side, Rai had already walked in. The girl paused, and glanced back at the others. Zachary had burnt himself on Ron, by the look of it, but everyone else was fine. "You okay?" she called to the boy, partly through habit. Maxie only carried antidotes, of course; she couldn't help him.

She turned back to the gym. She brushed herself down self-conciously, and followed Rai inside.
"Fang," she hissed, "Come out and take a look."
Slowly her zubat emerged. He screeched shrilly, so high it was barely audiable. His ears twitched, listening to the sound waves bouncing back off the walls.